Dowlands Park Development Leaflet15th February 2018

It has come to our attention that the applicant for Dowlands Park (to build 88 houses in the Green Belt) has written to all residents in the Parish, to our District Councillors and to Parish Councillors.

The leaflet distributed by the applicant implies that the Parish Council is supporting this development and that the concerns we raised on behalf of residents have been addressed. Neither of these things is true.

Burstow Parish Council carefully scrutinised the submitted planning application and has unequivocally opposed the application. The Parish Council has submitted a robust set of comments to the District Council demonstrating why this application should not be given consent.

Our arguments to the District Council included:

It is Green Belt and a development of any size would cause irreparable harm to its openness. There are no special circumstances that would outweigh the harm caused to the Green Belt by the development. Tandridge District Council themselves assessed the location as "inappropriate" when looking at potential development sites in and around the Village.

There is no safe pedestrian or cyclist access to and from the Village meaning that the development would be isolated, a situation compounded by inadequate public transport facilities. The resulting reliance on private vehicles

will lead to a significant increase in traffic through the village and add to existing, significant, highways safety issues.

There is inadequate foul drainage provision. The system is already operating at over capacity meaning that in heavy rains many of our residents are unable, amongst other things, to flush their toilets. A situation, which will only be worsened by adding another 88 homes to already, stressed infrastructure (with no agreement from the water company to make the necessary upgrades to capacity).

The submitted application contains no guarantee that any of the affordable housing provided will be restricted to those with a local connection and does not include a process as to how need will be determined.

The close proximity of the site to Heritage buildings will be detrimental to their setting and the overall environment of those buildings and the Village.

Affordable housing - no 'local connections' link - all the properties could end up being offered to people from outside the Parish